Medical Lake, West Plains water districts look to city of Spokane water connections as a way out of recurring drought problems
By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
As West Plains officials prepare to meet the upcoming dry season they'll consider how the mild temperatures and scant snowfall of our recent El Niño winter might impact an already dwindling aquifer.
“The lack of snow pack doesn't directly affect this area too much but in general terms it will lessen the recharge of groundwater out here,” John Livingston, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Airway Heights said. Livingston said precipitation levels are about 60 to 80 percent of the norm for this area with forecasts calling for moderate drought to persist through the spring.
The “D” word isn't anything new for the West Plains, which has been dealing with cyclical drought for years. Airway Heights, Medical Lake, Four Lakes and outlying areas of Spokane County all draw from the same aquifer, which is unable to replenish naturally in the face of steadily increasing demand. Cheney, which has its own separate aquifer is also seeing a diminishing water table, but at a much slower rate.
The new wastewater reclamation plant in Airway Heights, scheduled for completion in early 2011, is estimated to treat about 1 million gallons a day for non-potable reuse, which should help matters some. For the time being, city officials there plan to work toward water independence while continuing to purchase water piped from the city of Spokane when needed to combat drought.
Medical Lake City Administrator Doug Ross said drought this year is nearly certain as his city saw no noticeable recharge of their aquifer even after last year's heavy snowfall. “The one constant we've seen every summer is drought and it's a fair assumption that we'll struggle this year too,” he said.
As in past years, Medical Lake will ask residents and the school district to conserve water where possible and will take the lead by forgoing the irrigating of certain park areas during the height of the summer season. Like the city of Airway Heights, a residential irrigation ordinance will be enforced from June through September during the hottest hours of the day in order to cut down on water lost to evaporation.
But Ross said it's shortsighted to think conservation alone will solve the issue. “Farmers, other municipalities are pulling from the same aquifer,” he said. “We have no control over them. We must find another source outside of this shared aquifer.”
Purchasing water from Spokane on a contingency basis is ultimately the only solution, Ross said, but talks were stalled last year after Spokane said it would only agree to a water intertie with Medical Lake if Spokane was allowed to take over their water system, an agreement the smaller municipality firmly refused.
“They have the water and the quote unquote power in this instance, but it doesn't mean we're going to move forward with anything that's a bad deal for us,” said Ross.
Spokane's public works director Dave Mandyke said his city has since backed off from the takeover proposal. “We're much more flexible on that now,” he said. “We're going through the process now of looking for Medical Lake to tell us how much water they'll need and how many interties they're looking at.”
Dan Dorshorst acts as maintenance supervisor for Medical Lake as well as water manager for the Four Lakes Water District. He said Four Lakes is also considering an intertie with Spokane, although he'd rather see a purchase agreement reached with Medical Lake as there is already an intertie in place between the two municipalities and no booster station would be needed. Four Lakes had major drought problems last summer but Dorshorst said the district will be able to weather the dry months better this year after drilling their well down roughly another 60 feet in October to a depth of nearly 300 feet.
“This gives us a little breathing room, but if everyone continues to pump as they are it will continue to drop,” he said.
If an intertie between Medical Lake and Spokane does occur, Dorshorst said a booster pump station will be needed in order to get enough water pressure into Medical Lake. Gov. Chris Gregoire's recent push for $4.2 million to combat drought could help with jobs like this and a formal drought declaration this month could also help tap federal funds for Washington drought relief projects or for drilling deeper wells.
Ross, however, said funding will only go so far toward fixing the area's water issues. “Usually problems can be solved by throwing more money at them, but in this case you can't. It's a natural resource that is diminishing.” Even if Airway Heights, Four Lakes and Medical Lake were able to connect their systems together, he said, the same amount of water would just be moved around. “It's not like you found a new source – we'd still all have our straws in the same bowl.”
What the governor could do instead is help facilitate an intertie agreement between Medical Lake and Spokane, Ross said.
“If she really wants to help she could step in,” he said. “Bottom line is we're all pulling out of the same pool and it's diminishing. Until we find a new pool, this problem is not going away.”
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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